"Space weather" includes a wide range of phenomena that arise in space near the Earth through the interaction of powerful forces associated with the sun, the earth, and the constant outward flow of material from the sun known as the solar wind. Because of global reliance on satellite-based communications and monitoring systems, continent-wide power grids, and other technologies like extended pipeline facilities, all of which are vulnerable to the effects of space weather, understanding the phenomenon has become as important as understanding monsoons, hurricanes, and El Niño.

The $20 million center NSF Science Technology Center encompasses research groups at seven other universities, government and non-profit research organizations, and commercial partners.

W. Jeffrey Hughes, director of CISM, says that the Center will focus on the central and most ambitious research goal of the U.S. government’s National Space Weather Program: building a comprehensive, physics-based computer model that can accurately simulate the complex, closely interconnected variables — from explosions on the sun to aurora on the earth and almost everything in-between — that give rise to space weather."Within this goal," Hughes elaborates, "we will not only do new science, but we will also build a robust and operationally useful forecasting tool for both civilian and military space weather forecasters and create novel education programs that will give students at all levels a better understanding of the geospace environment."At present no computer model includes all the elements that make up space weather and not one can reliably predict near-earth phenomena as few as two days in advance, the goal of the CISM effort.

"Current predictions are based on techniques analogous to those used by meteorologists 50 years ago," says Charles Goodrich, deputy director of CISM. "We are confident," Goodrich goes on, "that with the knowledge base and the advanced computer technology now available, we can create the first integrated predictive space weather model within the next ten years."

As a first step, the Boston University-led CISM will create a single comprehensive model by coupling existing sub-models, several of which have been developed by members of the consortium. This early effort will be refined over time as it is tested against empirical observations from many sources, both ground- and satellite-based. The model will grow and evolve as new knowledge and understanding of the underlying physics are developed.